Harry How/Getty Images(LAS VEGAS) – The Vegas Golden Knights went into their inaugural season with a plan most expansion teams follow: form the best roster possible with a mix of veterans and young players while amassing draft picks in an effort to build for future success. Ironically, and luckily for Vegas, things did not go according to plan.

A mix of seasoned veterans like Marc-Andre Fleury and James Neal combined with impressive performances by young players like William Karlsson not only allowed Vegas to be serviceable in the Western Conference, but be viewed as one of the most dangerous teams in the league. The misfit bunch soared to the top of the standings early on in the year and almost never looked back, stunning its fans and the league as a whole.

Golden Knights general manager George McPhee soon realized come the trade deadline the team wouldn’t be looking to add more future draft picks, but build this young team for a playoff run. Acquisitions of Ryan Reaves and Tomas Tatar helped fill out the depth in the roster, allowing Vegas to be the first team to clinch a playoff berth in its inaugural season since the 1979-80 Whalers and Oilers.

If the story stopped there it would already be a fairytale, but it hasn’t. Vegas opened the Stanley Cup playoffs against the Los Angeles Kings, a team known for upsetting top seeds in recent years, and made an emphatic statement, sweeping them in four games. The Golden Knights became the first NHL team, and just the third team in the four major sports, to sweep its first every playoff series.

With the shooting tragedy that occurred in Vegas in October, the Golden Knights were there to give the people of Sin City a way to escape, even just for a  few hours, and rallied behind people who so desperately needed a reason to smile. The Golden Knights are an amazing story already, not only for just the NHL, but for the city of Las Vegas. And, the Cinderella story is not over yet.

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